Thematic unity in six English translations of the Holy Qur’an: a comparative study of Sūrat Maryam

The Holy Qur’an is perhaps the most widely read text in the world. Since many Muslims worldwide do not understand Arabic, the importance of producing translations of the Qur’an is obvious. However, the original text cannot be replaced for religious and linguistic reasons. Hatim and Mason (1990, p.8) agree that there is no ‘equivalent’ target text of the Qur’an, but there is an ‘approximation’ of the source text. This approximation will be different from one translator to another, which means that the original meaning can be altered, or different messages can be conveyed in different translations. Clarity of the message in translating the Holy Qur’an is an objective that needs to be fulfilled. Hence, a comparative study of translations is needed to show these differences and whether they deliver the same message or not. To do this, a coherent methodology should be followed to choose the appropriate criteria for determining what translation is the closest approximation to the original Holy Qur’an. This research will address aspects of these issues by providing a comparative study of thematic unity in six English translations of Sūrat Maryam in the Holy Qur’an. An overall introduction to the study will be first produced addressing the translatability vs. the untranslatability of the Holy Qur’an. This is mainly followed by defining thematic exegesis. This will lead to a discussion of the differences between its types and to a definition of thematic unity, along with the significance of the comparative methodology I have developed. A detailed discussion will be provided. Thematic unity will be defined generally in both Arabic and English and a comparison between the two languages will be made. The core issue will be then addressed by showing the problems of producing thematic unity in translation due to different factors, such as cultural and linguistic ones. Thematic unity will be defined as a refined version of Al-Tafsīr Al-Mawḍūʕī dealing in a specific way with Qur’anic themes as bound together based on their basic meaning or purpose and unveiling the unifying bond which links them together (El-Mesawi, 2005, pp.1-30). Sūrat Maryam [19] is chosen to apply the comparative methodology. This sūrah is chosen because of its medium length of 98 ’āyahs and because it has six different themes, none of which are explicitly connected to the others. First, each ’āyah will be individually discussed on a thematic basis. Afterwards, each theme will be subject to a progressive thematic analysis in a comparative framework. Each translation will be analysed and compared to all the others and to the original Holy Qur’an. At the end of each theme, there will be a discussion. When the whole sūrah is analysed, a valid outcome is expected. Thematic unity in the Holy Qur’an is a new field of study for Muslim scholars and opens up exciting new research fields. One of these is the comparative study of the Holy Qur’an translations to show the extent to which different translations reflect thematic unity. Moreover, some have criticised the Holy Qur’an for being non-coherent and lacking unity. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore how the uniqueness of the Holy Qur’an is shown through many aspects including its being united and coherent through particular ’āyahs, themes, sūrahs and the whole Qur’an.